Bears Rout Bulls in Poll

Investors had no good reason to be bullish heading into this week, and it showed in TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer survey.

A record 7,273 participated in the poll, with the bears capturing 3,537, or 48% of the votes cast. The bulls came in with 36%, or 2,596 votes, while neutral finished at 16%, or 1,139.

In the poll, precious metals was seen as the sector most likely to rise this week. Commercial banks was seen as the sector most likely to fall this week. That's not a surprise, considering the government took a bigger stake in Citigroup ( C) last week. Over the weekend, the Treasury Department added $30 billion to AIG's ( AIG) bailout, increasing the insurance company's U.S. loans to about $150 billion.

Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surrendered 4.1%, the S&P 500 gave back 4.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 4.4%. In 2009, the Dow is off by 19.5%, the S&P has lost 18.6%, and the Nasdaq has shed 12.6%.

On Monday, the major averages continued their descent, with the Dow trading down 200 points to 6863, the S&P off by 23 points to 712, and the Nasdaq lower by 33 points to 1345.